"Background: The Afro-Butoh is my own concept that began when I was offered a choreographic assignment by the Amsterdam Fonds voor de Kunst in The Netherlands, to collaborate with another choreographer, who works with a different movement vocabulary to mine. As an African dance and Butoh practitioner, I developed a idea and curiosity to explore the differences and similarities of African dance and Butoh. This idea has been inspired me to develop a choreographic research based on this dance work. I eventually invited Sayoko ONISHI, a Japanese Butoh performer, choreographer and Tai- Chi teacher, to collaborate with me. This unique collaboration of these two dance genres led to a concept of the "New-Butoh". After this experience I did an extensive research on the relationship between African dance and Butoh in their spiritual sense. The "New-Butoh" concept came to life as we explored a fusion of different styles of dance movements in their own right and spiritual form, finding both similarities and differences and how these different dance genres can influence and connect with each other to create one language. The development of the "New-Butoh" school in Palermo (Italy), run by Sayoko ONISHI in association with Butoh Master Yoshito OHNO, has been an inspiration in the process of developing the Afro-Butoh concept"